The Lakers get three rotation players, bolstering their roster and improving their shooting.
Why the Lakers do it: Although this return may not be as exciting as fans were expecting, it does considerably improve the team’s shooting. The best shooter out of the bunch is Malik Beasley, who has a career shooting average of 39% from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Mike Conley Jr. isn’t far behind, with a career average of 38% from the 3-point range. The former all-star can also run the point and serve as a playmaker while LeBron James is out of the game.
On the other hand, nobody will confuse Kelly Olynyk as a sniper or put on Lebron’s words a “laser”. But he is a solid shooter, having shot the 3 at a 37% clip for his career. By executing this trade, the Los Angeles Lakers would be upgrading their roster for the time being without compromising their future much. Giving up a lottery-protected first is a much more palatable price than the 2 unprotected 1st round picks that have been asked of them by other teams.
Why the Jazz do it: After trading away their two cornerstones this past offseason, the Utah Jazz are in a full-fledged rebuild. The Jazz have little to no use for Westbrook and would probably just buy him out after acquiring him. The reasons for Utah’s decision to execute this trade are to add one more first-round pick to their already packed coffers and to shed off some future salary. T
his financial flexibility would give the Jazz the ability to have cap space in the near future to sign free agents, or to absorb other teams’ bad contracts in exchange for more draft picks.